May 20, 2008

           Picture this. You have an automatic sliding door. Because it is Florida, you have dark smoked glass on the door pane and the pane beside the door. The sliding door pane slides behind the other pane. Florida IQ test: so which pane of glass do you paint your business hours on? (Remember to make the letters so small they cannot be read unless somebody steps up close enough to trigger the switch.) Brought to you by the same city that puts the bicycle paths out on the traffic roadway.
           Mitch was in touch today, asking about video editing software. Ha, I hope he knows what he’s getting into. After twenty years I still hesitate to recommend any particular brand. Wallace has indicated he will be heading out this way via Ontario within a few days. I’m stuck with not much to do. So I put 14 miles on the bicycle.
           I was also in the library. Music trivia. Jimmy Buffet is from up near Alabama and so is Lynyrd Skynyrd, named after a redneck high-school teacher. Meanwhile I was making up a CD and list of song words for Johnny D. I guess our styles are pretty different. Croce puts me to sleep. It’s an excuse to go to the beach, and I haven’t been out there on my own at night for what, a year now? There is nothing to do out there except rent things, you know, spend money. Even just sitting on the beach isn’t free because you don’t live there.
           Sure, I went down to Toucans and there was Johnny D with his open mic. For all the times we’ve talked, this is the first time we’ve played together. Wow! We are quite the combination. Top tune of the evening would be “The Boxer”. The crowd is just not used to what we gave them. While we have the tricky situation of two strong personalities on stage, we both naturally share that space. A valuable lesson. He’s invited me to his Thursday gig. Time to learn a few more of his tunes and he still doesn’t know I can play the lo-hat.
           He has my song list and a CD of the tunes that I think most fit his style. There were a few other musicians who showed up, but all guitarists. The way to spot an rookie in the guitar trade is by their choice of music. Once they know the standards, how do they diversify? The good people while adapt good music to the guitar. Other people will start looking for the “Zydeco” version. Playing too much guitar does that too you.
           Pet department. I’ve tried over the past week to get Pudding-Tat used to the carrier but now that she is, will she ever trust me again? This is not only her first real time outdoors since a kitten, it is also the first time she will be around strangers handling her. I do suspect this will be quite a traumatic time for her.